Filled with joy and gratitude from last night. It took a village to make All the Empty Rooms, winner of the Academy Award® for Best Documentary Short Film, and we’re deeply grateful to everyone who played a role.
Special thanks to the parents of Hallie, Gracie, Dominic, and Jackie, the young children whose empty bedrooms are featured in our film. It was an honor to have you with us at the awards last night. This film would not exist without you.
#AllTheEmptyRooms
“Beautiful” - Deadline (@deadline )
“Powerful” - NPR (@npr )
“Moving” - RogerEbert.com (@rogerebertofficial )
The #AcademyAward nominated All the Empty Rooms follows news correspondent Steve Hartman (@stevehartmancbs ) and photographer Lou Bopp (@loubopp ) on a seven-year project to document the absence, memory, and families living with the unseen aftermath of school shootings. In a country where more kids and teens die from guns than any other cause, these empty rooms speak in ways statistics never can.
Now streaming on @netflix
Academy Award® Nominee | Best Documentary Short Film
#AllTheEmptyRooms
All the Empty Rooms has won the Academy Award® for Best Documentary Short Film.
Thank you to everyone who helped bring us to this moment: Steve Hartman, Lou Bopp, the team at @netflix , our incredible ensemble of filmmakers, and many more.
The empty rooms in our film belonged to four young children: Hallie, Gracie, Dominic, and Jackie. All of them were killed in school shootings.
To their families: Thank you for trusting us to help share their stories. We couldn’t be here without you.
—
Director:
@jrseftel
Producers:
@jamesthecharles@trevor.burgess.94@casualconall
Editors:
@erinlcasper@mainmaing@jeremymedoff
Director of Photography:
@mattporwoll
Music:
@alexsomersmusic
Sound Design:
Peter Albrechtsen, MPSE
Colorist:
@kathraisch
Executive Producers:
Adam McKay @mr.ghostpanther
Kevin Messick
Steve Kerr
Rev. Dr. Conrad Fischer, MD
Roy and Mary Judelson @royjudelson
Phil and Cheryl Milstein
Geralyn Dreyfous
Regina K. Scully @reginascully
Melony and Adam Lewis
Claire Aguilar @claireannaguilar
Lisa Cortés @misscortes
Sigrid Dyekjær @sigriddyekjaer
Anna Bick Rowe @annabickrowe
Jon Levin
Kim Magnusson @kimmerik
Eric Nichols @esnichols1
Co-Producers:
Avi Bond
Michael J Gray
Sarah McCarthy @sarahlikesfilms
Consulting Producers:
Dr. Chethan Sathya, MD @drchethansathya
Fred Guttenberg @fredguttenberg18
Jody Snider @jodybsnider
Ilene Gutman @ilenegutman
Erika Frankel @erikafrankel
Co-EP:
Chelsea Noll-McClintock @chelnollmcc
#AllTheEmptyRooms
We’re honored to have been part of a powerful panel on gun violence prevention solutions at last week’s @milkeninstitute Global Conference in LA. #MIGlobal
All the Empty Rooms director Joshua Seftel (@jrseftel ) spoke alongside Angela Ferrell-Zabala (@ferrellzabala ), executive director of Moms Demand Action (@momsdemand ); Andre Dickens (@andreforatlanta ), mayor of Atlanta; and Jens Ludwig, University of Chicago (@uchicago ) professor. Journalist Jonathan Capehart (@capehartj ) moderated.
We’re especially grateful to Frank Blackwell for joining us – advocate and father of Dominic Blackwell, one of the children featured in our film. In the front row was Dominic’s best friend, Mia Tretta (@mia_tretta ), a two-time school shooting survivor and advocate for a safer future.
Scroll for a photo of Dominic and his bedroom. To learn more about Dominic and his family’s advocacy, please visit the @dmbfoundation .
On the night of the Met Gala, March For Our Lives (@marchforourlives ) made a bold statement with a bulletproof dress.
This dress makes visible the reality an entire generation has grown up inside: active shooter drills and the threat of gun violence in everyday public spaces.
We’re incredibly grateful for March For Our Lives’ continued support of All the Empty Rooms and for the work they do every day to keep these conversations moving forward.
Check out their Action Hub for ways to get involved and stay engaged year-round, from your couch, your campus, and your community. Link in our bio.
This recent news segment from the Philippines highlights Executive Producer Claire Aguilar, a Filipino-American leader in the documentary space. Claire’s vision was instrumental in bringing this story of grief, memory, and healing to life.
Join us for a screening of the 2026 Academy Award-winning documentary short film, "All the Empty Rooms," hosted by co-executive producers and current Yale parents, Roy and Mary Judelson P ‘26 (Alexander), and Yale Schwarzman Center.
"All the Empty Rooms" follows veteran CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman and photographer Lou Bopp as they embark on a seven-year-long project to document the empty bedrooms of children killed in school shootings. Hartman steps away from his heartwarming human-interest stories and pursues a piece on absence, memory, and the unseen ripples of America’s gun violence epidemic. As these senseless incidents claim more young lives than any other cause in America, these quiet bedrooms reveal truths more powerful than statistics ever could.
Following the screening, Dean Megan Ranney and Community Scholar Nelba Márquez-Greene—both from the Yale School of Public Health—will join correspondent Steve Hartman and director Joshua Seftel for a conversation moderated by Executive Producer Lisa Cortés ’83.
Like so many teenagers, Alyssa Alhadeff loved getting dressed up and accessorizing. But there was one accessory she hated: her retainer.
Once, she texted her mom that someone had stolen it out of her backpack. “They didn’t take the money, only my retainer!”
Her mom, Lori, was onto her right away. She laughs telling the story, remembering her daughter’s boldness. In reality, Alyssa had lost it at school and was trying to cover her tracks. Thankfully, a teacher found it and returned it soon after.
Alyssa was 14 when she was killed in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in 2018. In her honor, her parents founded @makeourschoolssafe . Their mission is to empower students and staff to help create a culture of safety in schools. Link in our bio to learn more.
After losing his son in the Sandy Hook shooting, Mark Barden (@markbardenmusic // co-founder @sandyhookpromise ) says everything changed.
The hardest part: Not having answers for his children.
The documentary “All the Empty Rooms (@alltheemptyrooms )” is now streaming on Netflix.
“Dear future self… don’t be nervous. You’ll meet lifelong friends,” wrote
Gracie Anne Muehlberger, 15, in a letter to herself on her first day of high school.
She never got the chance to finish the story. She was killed in the 2019 Saugus High School shooting in California. Her parents share moving mementos they found in their daughter's room.
The documentary “All the Empty Rooms (@alltheemptyrooms )” is now streaming on Netflix.
A small detail — a cap left off a tube of toothpaste — helped filmmaker Josh Seftel (@jrseftel ) understand the power in documenting lives lost to school shootings.
In “All the Empty Rooms,” (@alltheemptyrooms ) families invite cameras into bedrooms that have remained untouched since their children were killed.
